One angler who chartered Zaremba for three days fished two of those days, but with Ivan approaching, Zaremba told him to change his flight and leave a day early, just to be safe.

In another of Zaremba's lost trips, "He has a timeshare in Cocoa Beach," Zaremba said. "It got damaged and he had to reschedule."

Most of the others Zaremba lost cannot be rescheduled.

Zaremba specializes in fishing for peacock bass in Miami lakes and canals and he takes out anglers from all over the United States. Many of the out-of-towners who planned to fish with Zaremba last month but canceled will not have a chance to get down here for quite some time.

Those anglers who were able to rearrange their visits probably won't be able to rebook with Zaremba because he has few openings available from November through March.

"It definitely has hurt," Zaremba said of the lost income. "I did get out some, but not as much as I should have. I would've had my busiest September ever if all those trips came through. Instead it's just an average September. But I'll get by. It gets busy again here soon enough."

Capt. Ron Mallet of Davie, who runs offshore and inshore charters out of Fort Lauderdale on his boat Just Add Water, also was on track for a good September until Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

"I had six cancellations," said Mallet, who returned the deposits for those trips. "I got paid for only three days of fishing for the whole month of September.

"September is the weakest month of the year, traditionally. If I do 10 trips in September, I'm happy."

Two of Mallet's canceled trips were booked by locals. Two charters were going to come down to Florida by train, but train service was halted by the hurricanes. The other two planned to drive to South Florida but never made it.

Between the 'canes, some potential charters were scared off by reports of rough seas.

"I probably had 10, 12 inquiries from people who said, We're going to see if it calms down,' and none of them came through," Mallet said. "There were quite a few spotty days that were quite fishable. There were dolphin in close and the kingfish were biting.

"I fished the Friday and Saturday of Charley and fishing was good. One guy gave me a hard time about going, but I said, "You got to believe me, I wouldn't take you for a boat ride.' It was a west wind, flat calm, we had a nice day and he apologized."

Capt. Craig Gordon of Hillsboro Inlet Marina charter boat Offsides went out with a loyal customer the morning before Jeanne arrived and they were rewarded with a sailfish, a big wahoo and a dolphin plus several bonitos and barracudas.

But the bulk of Gordon's September was spent preparing the boat for the peak of tourist season.

"The fortunate thing is this is the slowest time of the year for us. We go in the boatyard this time of year," Gordon said. "We didn't miss a lot of trips.

"We do appreciate every trip we get this time of year, but it's not like we lost 10 trips."

The outlook for October is much brighter.

"They're starting to come out of the woodwork now," said Gordon, whose charter Saturday morning caught small kingfish in 120 feet and some dolphin and a few bonito in 200-250 feet. "People are itching to get out here."

Steve Waters can be reached at swaters@sun-sentinel.com or at 954-356-4648.